Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch on Thursday announced that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would lead a Pakistani delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers being held in India on May 4-5, 2023.
In a weekly media briefing today, she said Bilawal Bhutto would attend the meeting at invitation of the incumbent chairman of SCO CFM, Minister for External Affairs of the Republic of India Dr S. Jaishankar.
FM @BBhuttoZardari will lead 🇵🇰delegation to SCO-CFM meeting being held on 4-5 May 2023 in Goa,India. FM’s participation in Meeting reflects 🇵🇰’s continued commitment to SCO Charter & processes & the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 20, 2023
The SCO currently has eight member countries (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), four observer states interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia), and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkiye).
The Shanghai Five, which was formed in 1996, became the SCO in 2001 with the addition of Uzbekistan. The SCO expanded to become one of the largest multilateral organisations in the world, representing more than 30 per cent of the world’s GDP and 40 per cent of the world’s population, with the addition of India and Pakistan in 2017.
Pakistan’s participation in the SCO meetings, she said, reflected the country’s commitment to the SCO Charters and processes and the importance Pakistan accorded to the region in its foreign policy priorities.
“Pakistan continues to participate in SCO meetings in keeping with our longstanding commitment to SCO,” she added.
She also said that Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman had represented the country in the fourth SCO meeting of heads of ministries on environmental protection. “The meeting was held in an online format in New Delhi on April 18, 2023.”
“Yesterday director of the National Disaster Management Authority virtually attended the SCO meeting of the heads of agencies for prevention and elimination of emergency situations,” she added.
